Linked Data in Production: Moving Beyond Ontologies
CTO @ startup
1. Working at a startup
as the CTO
Tech Startups Nights #TSN15
Mexico City, 2013-Jun-20
2. Disclaimer
I’m not a CTO
I don't work at a startup
WTF?
Why I'm here?
Because I used to be a CTO at a startup
Because I have a story to share, a life story
3. The beginning
I quit my job as development manager at BMV
(Mexican Stock Market)
I joined a startup in the music business
With the most impressive technical team I ever had
With a lot of resources
With a very ambicious plan
Earning less money than my previous job
4. My first results
The most challenging project ever in my profesional life
Teamwork, agile environment, extreme programming
Multicultural
The better hires != the best team
Focus is key
More features, more time, we never delivered a product, lack of
MVP definition
After a year I was disappointed. So, I returned back to work in my
own company for a few months, until...
9. Epic adventure began
A friend of mine asked me for some hints to hire
developers
Very difficult to find developers with a specific skills and
knowledge
After some weeks and more details, my friend asked
me to join the startup as the CTO
10. My first day
9:00 am. Conference call with the development team at
Berlin, Germany
11:00 am. Quick talk with the CEO
11:05 am. CEO to me: “have you been in Germany?,
No?, ok, Tonight, make your luggage. Tomorrow
morning you will travel to Berlin. We will launch the
store in 2 weeks”
11. Startup Spirit
Go as fast as you can
Build a team, the right team. Very risky.
Deliver, deliver, deliver...
fail fast?
Ecommerce platform built from scratch
12. Launch
Spent two weeks in Berlin, learning about the project,
very intensive days (Payment Gateway for Mexican
Market)
One week after I came back to Mexico, we launch
One week after Mexico launching, We launch in
Argentina
Platform not ready for latam market, huge efforts to
adapt
16. Next steps
Built the development team in Mexico
Took ownership of the platform
Hardware infrastructure
Software development
New business requirements
Flexibility, Agility
17. Some numbers
3 to 100 employees
0 to 5 million users
180 million emails sent a month
200k-300k visits daily
1.5M > page views daily
80K concurrent users
20K-50K new users daily
1000-3000 purchases daily
19. Good stuff
clickOnero bought several startups
National presence
Won the prize for “Best internet company in Mexico
2011”
Culture